Untitled
by Kex3
Summary: "I wish you would let me in." She said. "We all wish for things," He replied simply. She turned on her camera. "What do you wish for Seto Kaiba?" He eyed her carefully as he thought. "I don't wish. I do or don't." "Surely there's something you want to do?" "...I want this to end." She had the feeling he wasn't talking about the project. M/suicidal thoughts and actions. No title yet
1. Hidden in the Dark

Hidden in the Dark

He lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling. Thousands of silent thoughts circled around his head as he pondered the idea of sleep. But he knew what sleep meant. It meant nightmares, dreams of past memories that were all too real and far too present.

Sometimes he wanted to scream. Sometimes he felt like crying. But he had no tears left. His voice was only good for telling others what to do, and yelling about someone else's mistakes. When it came to himself, he could barely whisper. Much less make a small noise. So he didn't think about expressing his feelings. He didn't think about how to sedate the pain. He only thought about the permanent solution. Something that could stop that horrible ache and terminate it forever.

He sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He'd had enough. He opened the bedside drawer and pulled out a hard, long black object and looked it over in his hands. He'd bought the item several years ago, something for self protection. That was before the nightmares started to plague his thoughts and sometimes even his actions. His little brother didn't know about the item. No one knew about it. Not even the doctors.

Unfolding the pocket knife carefully, he admired the dark metal blade and fingered the sharp edge gently. He pondered the idea carefully. His brother would be heartbroken. But he'd be alright, especially with his ridiculous everything-will-always-be-alright-with-friendship friends. And as for those 'friends'... They wouldn't even notice his absence until his brother told them. In fact, he'd thought everything out. He'd even written out everything he wanted to happen after this moment. It was so simple.

He pulled off his wrist band and looked at the scars from failed attempts before. No... not failed, he told himself firmly. They were test runs. It was just like one of his many projects. This test was one of endurance. He wanted to know what his boundaries were if he was going to surpass them. The question was, is this a test run, or the final completion? He did not know. There was one way to find out.

With precise precision, he dragged the blade across his wrist in a straight and narrow line. Dark crimson liquid immediately seeped out of his newly created wound. He felt the prick of pain as his senses notified him his wrist was bleeding. Everything in his mind screamed to stop the bleeding. He knew that if he did nothing to stop this soon, he would die. But as he watched the large drops drip down his arm and hit the floor, he did not make any action to move and stop the bleeding.

He started to feel darkness taking over him. He sighed and felt himself growing drowsy as the effects of the blood loss started to infiltrate his mind. He felt himself falling backward and hit the soft, welcoming sheets. His vision began to fail him as everything around him felt like it was spinning. But he still did nothing to stop his inevitable fate. His breathing began to grow heavy and labored, and then... he lost consciousness.

He laid on the bed, unmoving and unfeeling. And he was completely unaware when footsteps echoed through the hallways close to his room. And he didn't hear a sound when a hand knocked on his door, or the voice that whispered his name. As the door opened, he would never remember the scream that immediately followed.

"Seto!"

_It didn't have to be this way. But it was too overwhelming. He'd thought there was no way out, something even this could not fix. But she came... she made it seem so... easy. He wouldn't have to go through everything alone... but it just wasn't possible. And with all those confusing feelings... He didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't take it._

_ And to think, it started on such a good day…_


	2. The Project

_One Month earlier…_

Seto Kaiba awoke that morning to find sunlight filtering through the windows. He immediately began to wonder if today would be a bad day. Something he began to notice over the years, was if sunlight managed to enter his room in the morning, he wasn't likely to have a good day.

He grumbled to himself and covered his head with the only pillow on the bed, which he found teetering on the edge of the mattress. He rarely woke up with pillows on the bed; and the sheets were either strangling him, or could be found hanging off the bed post. "Stupid nightmares," Seto often mumbled to himself as he made his bed every morning.

It was 6:30 a.m. by the time he was completely ready for the day. It was a weekday, meaning he had school that day. So, Seto was wearing his usual dark blue school blazer over a white t-shirt. He also wore dark blue uniform pants and black shoes.

Most students tried to add their own personalities to their uniforms. Some left their jackets unbuttoned with their sleeves rolled up, others would leave their shirts loose and untucked. The girls would mostly change their appearance either with semi-long shorts beneath their skirts or with too much jewelry and makeup.

But Kaiba was different. Hi jacket was buttoned to the top, and his uniform was done so far up to perfection, he appeared stiff as stone compared to his fellow students. But he didn't have a problem with it. In fact, Kaiba preferred it.

Seto walked down the halls and opened the door to his brother's room. Mokuba, just twelve years old, slept peacefully in his bed.

Mokuba was different than Seto, both in appearance and personality. They boy had long black hair that was always wild and mussed, as though he just got out of bed. This was usually the case. Mokuba also had stunning gray eyes that were always sparkling with life and passion. Mokuba's features easily reflected his wild and fun nature. But the younger brother could be serious when he needed to be.

Seto was almost the exact opposite of his little brother. For one, he was 18 years old. He had straight, medium-light brown hair that was almost always styled professionally and seriously. His eyes were a dark blue, but the life that once sparked there had died out long ago; and the passion that once drove him so fully had been slowly dying over the years. The only two feelings he still felt strongly for was his little brother and work. With the occasional hatred for a certain blond mutt…

Seto gently shook Mokuba's shoulder.

"Mokuba," He said.

"Mm…! Five more minutes…!" Mokuba groaned, trying to bat Seto's hand away.

"Mokuba, I'm leaving now." That immediately grabbed the young boy's attention, as he sat up sharply, fully awake and alert.

"What time is it?" He asked, trying to suppress a yawn. Seto smirked and shook his head.

"It's 6:30 or so. Still too early for you to get up. I'm just letting you know so you don't panic later." Seto said evenly. Mokuba suddenly leaned over and pulled Seto into a tight hug, causing him to jump at the sudden move. Kaiba didn't make any action to return the hug, but instead gently pulled Mokuba off, uncomfortable with human contact for too long.

"Stay safe, 'kay?" Mokuba said, his large, still childlike eyes boring into Seto's narrow experienced ones. Seto nodded firmly.

"I will." He patted Mokuba on the head before standing and leaving the room. Mokuba watched him go, worry still pulling at his heart.

It wasn't a mystery to him that his older brother, his nii-sama, was fading. He was hiding himself in his work and was growing more distant with every day that passed. Every day, Mokuba wondered if Seto would come home only a former shadow of himself. But as long as there was still a glimmer of his former brother, he still held hope.

Seto went to work and sat at his desk for two hours, typing away and putting together plans for his next few projects. They would be time consuming, he knew. But it didn't matter. Not really.

When eight o'clock rolled around, he packed up his things and took the express elevator back down to the garage level, where his car was waiting. He drove to school and once he parked in the front, he turned off the car and leaned back against his seat.

The sun was bright and blinding. Students sat outside before the bell rang, enjoying the fresh morning breeze. Some of them were still yawning and waking up. But Kaiba had been up for several hours. He was wide awake.

As he watched the front doors, trying to bring himself to get out of the car and go inside to suffer through those pointless classes, he saw a group of people he felt as though he despised. But he couldn't bring himself to hate them all together either. All he knew was that they were insufferably annoying.

The first boy was incredibly short, not even a quarter of Seto's height. His name was Yuugi Motou. He was the current King of Games as far as Duel Monsters was concerned. Kaiba was the second best in the entire world. But that wasn't good enough. He had to be the best. But no matter how hard Seto tried, he couldn't defeat the impossibly short teenager.

Yuugi had tri-colored, spiky hair that almost looked like a starfish. He wore the typical Domino High School uniform, but his was unbuttoned and seemed to flare with some sort of drama.

Right behind him were his lackeys and cheerleaders. The first was Katsuya Jonouchi, who had sandy blond hair and dark brown eyes. Seto hated Katsuya, with a passion. There was something about him that completely set him off and got on his nerves to no end.

Jonouchi's best friend trailed behind him, Honda something. He didn't care to remember his name; the kid was only hanging around that group and didn't say much most of the time.

And then the final friend, the cheerleader. Anzu Mazaki was her name. Yuugi had a thing for her, but if Anzu liked him, it was beyond Seto. Anzu had medium length dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. The girls uniform was basically a light blue skirt with a pink blazer over a white shirt.

Seto watched as they chatted on the steps, laughing about something. Kaiba scowled at their amusement. Something about them enjoying themselves only made him upset. And he didn't know why.

He climbed out of his car and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him with the click of a button on his keychain. He placed the key ring in his pocket and glared at the teens as he walked up the steps.

"Well if it isn't money bags?" Jou said. Kaiba felt himself tense at the sound of the mutt's thick accent. So this was the beginning of his bad day. Figured.

"Stay out of my way mutt," Kaiba sneered. "I'm not in the mood." Jou put up his arms in defense while he raised his eyebrows. A smirk crossed the blonde's face as he seemed to take it as a challenge.

"You're not in the _mood_? When are you _ever_?"

"Jou!" Yuugi warned, but Kaiba had already shoved past him and stormed into the school building, unwilling to look at him for even another moment. He was going to get through the day no matter what it took. And he would preferably like to get through the day without fighting with _him _again. He wanted to shudder at the idea of facing off with the underdog again, but he didn't care enough too. He just wanted to get this over and done with as soon as humanly possible.

As Seto was walking through the halls, ignoring the looks of his adoring fangirls and angry boyfriends of the fangirls, he allowed himself to become lost in his thoughts. Most of them revolved around his Kaiba Corp. projects. For one, had to figure out the full designs of the new Duel Disk he was going to be manufacturing, and then there was the string of Kaiba Land amusement parks he wanted to open in America. (Mokuba's idea.) And then there was that annoying persistent manager that was constantly messing up everything Kaiba did.

But he was so occupied with his thoughts and plans, he was completely unaware of the obvious collision course he had wandered into.

"Ack!" The two bumped into each other. Seto, being the tallest and firmest, only took a step back from the force of the collision. The other was not as fortunate. She crashed to the floor, textbooks and papers flying everywhere.

"I'm _so _sorry!" She exclaimed, immediately moving to pick up everything she'd dropped. Kaiba's nose scrunched up in distaste. As he tried to walk away, the girl grabbed his wrist.

"Wait! Some of this might be yours," The girl said.

Seto barely registered her words as he ripped his arm out of her grip. Shock flooded through his system as he glared at the girl who was climbing to her feet and counting papers. Who did she think she was? Grabbing him like that?

The girl had straight, light brown hair that nearly reached her shoulders. She was dressed in the girls uniform… but it was far different than anything the other girls wore. For one, instead of a white undershirt, it was dark black. Her uniform pink blazer was unbuttoned and the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, but were constantly slipping down. And instead of wearing shorts beneath her light blue skirt, she wore jet black tights. And then to finish things off, she was wearing combat boots instead of the school standard dress shoes. Kaiba was surprised she hadn't been sent to detention. No one dressed like that at Domino High and got away with it. As far as he was concerned, anyways.

"Algebra… History… Yep! All mine." She finally looked into Kaiba's hard eyes, and her smile disappeared, her eyes widening.

"Oh wait… You're… Seto Kaiba!" She exclaimed. Did she live under a rock? Her eyes brightened and Kaiba prepared himself for her to suddenly jump all over him like the fangirls. Instead, he was surprised.

The girl smiled gently, kindly, and extended her hand.

"I'm Katherine Mallark. I can't believe I'm actually meeting you…" Kaiba eyed her warily before stepping away and walking down the hall. Stunned for only a moment, Katherine turned around and chased after him, shoving her papers into her backpack in the process.

"Wait, can you help me? I'm looking for class 2-B." Katherine said, somehow managing to keep up to his long strides. He ignored her and just kept walking. If she continued to follow him, she'd find class 2-B very soon. That was his class. But he wouldn't tell her that.

Talking with her meant socializing. Socializing meant she would think he was friendly. Friendly equaled friend_ship_. And there was no way on earth that he would be friends with anyone. Including this persistent chick.

"You know," Katherine was saying, "if you want me to shut up and leave you alone, you should just say so." She was clearly growing frustrated with his silence.

"Shut up and leave me alone." Kaiba repeated, opening the door to room 2-B and walking in to take his seat in the back of the room.

Katherine hesitated outside the door and looked at the sign. Her eyes narrowed and she stalked into the classroom. But she froze immediately after. She was early. All of the students hadn't arrived yet. Katherine tried not to glare at Seto as she shuffled her feet, trying to decide what to do. She couldn't take just any seat. Someone else might have already taken it for their own at the beginning of the school year.

Seto watched her eye the room anxiously. She was amusing him, to say the least.

"Having problems?" He asked, his eyes glinting humorously when she stared at him helplessly.

"I don't know where to sit," Katherine replied honestly.

"Sit anywhere. The seats obviously aren't taken."

"But it's someone else's desk!" She exclaimed.

Seto, feeling he had said enough to shake her up, stopped talking. But Katherine didn't feel the same.

"You know, I met some kids here who said you're always just like this. Stoic and mean." Seto shrugged and opened his briefcase before pulling out a sleek black laptop. He noticed Katherine was staring at it as he turned it on.

"What?" He asked. He was genuinely curious after watching several emotions seem to race across her face, but still managed to make his question sound more like a statement.

"…I was going to say you can't do that during class, but it hasn't started yet and you are Seto Kaiba… so nothing." He had a feeling she hadn't said everything she was thinking, but it wasn't like he cared. They weren't friends or anything.

"Whatever."

Silence filled the room for several long minutes until students started to enter the classroom. Katherine, feeling that Kaiba wouldn't answer if she asked, tapped the shoulder of the first person to enter the classroom. Luckily, it was a new friend of hers she'd just met that morning. Yuugi Motou. He was kind and quite adorable, Katherine thought. He almost reminded her of a panda bear his eyes were so big. She had been looking for him earlier when she ran into Kaiba. She had no idea that he went to that class.

"Hey Yuugi, are there any open seats in here, that haven't already been… claimed?" Katherine asked softly, but still not unheard by Kaiba.

"Oh yeah," Yuugi said with a smile once he recognized her from earlier. But the smile didn't last long as he looked around the room.

"The only open seat is by Kaiba." Yuugi said in a more serious tone.

Katherine's heart skipped a beat as she nodded.

"Thanks… I think," she muttered as she walked to the back of the room. Hardly making a sound, she sat down beside Kaiba stiffly as the warning bell rang.

Seto eyed her warily. She couldn't possibly be _that _uncomfortable. Even Seto didn't sit so rigidly. He'd been expecting the exact opposite from her. Especially with that get-up. But no. Katherine was stone still, eyes focused ahead and not once daring to look at him. Intriguing…

The rest of the students filed into the room, and they listened to the whispers that inevitably followed.

"Oh my gosh…!"

"Is he actually letting _her _sit next to him like that?"

"Kaiba won't let this fall through."

"I'll give it an hour. She'll be kicked into a different class…!" Most of these comments came from Kaiba's fangirls, except for the last one, which came from a strange boy that most others avoided.

With every whisper and pointing finger, Seto could almost feel Katherine flinching and becoming _more _rigid, if that was possible. Was she nervous? Upset about this maybe? Seto didn't know, but he tried to tell himself, again, that he didn't care. But it was getting harder.

Something about her was just too different. Everything he expected her to do she didn't, and she was difficult to read. Most students there were as easy and annoying to read as a children's book. But this girl was coming across him morel ike an English textbook. And he had no idea what that meant or what it had in store for him.

Katherine shifted uncomfortably and finally turned to look at Kaiba.

"Is it alright if I ask you a question?" She asked, strain evident in her voice.

"What do you think?" He grunted in response. Katherine's fingers tightened around the base of her seat uncomfortably as she thought.

"I think… I'll ask anyway. Is what they're saying true?" She asked. Hm… he supposed he should have seen that one coming.

"That depends on you." Seto replied.

It was at that moment the teacher, Mr. Doty, walked into the room. Mr. Doty was a shorter man with a round face and round glasses. He started his usual roll call and hesitated when he came upon Katherine's name. He was probably wondering how long she would still be in his class.

After he finished roll call, Seto was already halfway through his work plans for the week, when the teacher made an announcement.

"Alright students. We've just started the month of October, and this month, we'll all be working on a new project. It will count for 1/3 of your final grade—"

"This early into the school year?" One of the students exclaimed.

"Yes. But don't worry. It's a fun project and you'll be paired up in two's to complete it." Mr. Doty replied.

Kaiba's eyes flashed. 1/3 of the grade… He couldn't fail. But there was no way he would 'pair up' with someone.

"What is the project?" Kaiba asked, and a hush fell over the classroom. Kaiba rarely spoke or asked questions, if he did at all.

"Good question. The purpose of this project is to get to know your partner and share it with the class… through a documentary." Kaiba's left eye twitched and Katherine stared.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Anzu asked.

"You see, I have prepared a list of things I want you to cover in these short films. You'll use a camera and will record yourself asking these questions and your partner answering them. The purpose is mostly just to get to know someone knew and develop interviewing skills. It will also help you learn about the art of learning and discovery.

"And, there is an incentive to help you all strive to do your best."

Everyone's attention was immediately captured.

"The top five best groups will have the change to go on a school trip to Tokyo, where they will learn about Japan's history for a week. I recommend doing your best. This trip could help you study for a test later this year which will count for another 1/3 of your grade."

The room immediately erupted into conversations as Mr. Doty handed out the list of questions. Kaiba closed his laptop and took a sheet. It was stupid, just stupid, he thought to himself. Katherine thought about who her partner would be. She hoped it was Yuugi or Jou. Maybe Anzu; she was a girl and Katherine had met her and all her friends that morning. They were helpful in finding the principal's office to get her class schedule.

Mr. Doty returned to the front of the room and picked up an orange sheet.

"No, I've already chosen who your partners will be." He started to list off names.

Katherine tried not to squirm while Kaiba felt like snapping a pencil in half. If he was paired up with that mutt Jou, he would kill Mr. Doty, or Jou. For certain Jou. And if that didn't work, himself.

"Yuugi Motou and Anzu Mazaki," Mr. Doty said. Katherine could've sworn they both blushed.

"Katsuya Jonouchi and Hiroto Honda." Kaiba could've sighed with relief. But now which moron would he be stuck with? Hopefully not Bakura. That kid could barely say a word. But then again, that would've been a blessing… but definitely a curse if Kaiba was supposed to make half a documentary on him.

Kaiba kept track of all the pairings, until everyone had been paired up except for him, and… his eyes widened in disbelief. Mr. Doty had to be kidding.

"Seto Kaiba and Katherine Mallark." Kaiba swore under his breath and Katherine blinked as her chest thudded in her chest.

"Now, you have until the day before the Halloween Dance to turn in your documentary. We'll go over the rules before you can discuss with your partner how you will work on this project. After that, I'll teach you all how to put together your films for later. And if necessary, teach you how to work a camera."

**~((~^*^~))~**

A/N: Please review.


	3. Surviving the Project

Kaiba's eyes tore away at the girl sitting across from him. It was lunchtime, and so far Katherine had been in every single one of his classes, and sat next to him in each of them. He should have known it was only a matter of time before his lone shark attitude caught up with him.

Under normal circumstances, he would have just black mailed the principal into changing her classes, (or more preferably kicking her out of the school entirely), but the fact of the matter was that Seto needed her. 1/3 of his final grade was not something Kaiba took lightly, and never would take lightly. Besides, he'd rather have this stranger as a partner than some dork who thought they knew him. Not to mention anyone was better than Jonouchi.

While Kaiba stared her down intensely, the girl in question was sipping on a soda she'd bought out of a vending machine in the hallway. It was a Dr. Pepper, unusual because that brand of soda was unpopular in Japan.

"Can you stop staring? It's making me uncomfortable." Katherine Mallark said seriously, looking him directly in the eyes, also something no one else did; except for the craziest of fan girls… But this girl didn't give off that vibe. Not really.

"Do you have a camera?" Kaiba said abruptly, giving no thought to her comment.

"Uh, yeah. Its quality is okay, and it's small too, so it's easily portable."

"That's good."

He finally looked away from her and down to the sheet of questions sitting in front of him. A notebook sat next to the sheet. During the classes leading up to lunch Seto had filled out his own set of rules that he was counting on this Katherine girl to heed carefully.

"So, there are a bunch of questions for us to answer if we can't think of anything to start off with," Katherine said as she looked at her own paper.

"Like where you were born, when, if you have siblings, the usual junk no one really cares about. Except for maybe siblings…" She trailed off and Seto's left eyebrow twitched.

Who talked like that? That sounded like it came more from a boy, except for that last part maybe. Her voice was naturally lower and a bit deeper than the average girl, but it was clear. He understood her words like she'd typed them out perfectly.

"I have a few rules if we're going to do this," Kaiba said, quickly earning attention.

"Okay, shoot." Katherine replied.

"First of all, I'm not going in depth on my past, got it? That's private."

"Sure. I don't want you snooping around either," She said so quickly it made Seto hesitate. Was she trying to hide something? He quickly brushed it off. She'd agreed, there was no reason to go any deeper than that.

"Also, we'll only work on this project during specific days of the week at certain times. I have my business and not much time for anything else. So tell me right now what works for you so I can set a schedule in advance." Kaiba said what he'd written word for word. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Katherine stared at him for a few moments. Then, she reached into her backpack next to her and pulled out a small, black, spiral-bound planner. She opened it up to the month of October and looked at the calendar.

"I'm free every day of the week after four pm. The weekends are completely free, but I have to run errands every Saturday at 9 am to 10 am." She looked up at Seto and continued, "If we want to get a good grade on this we should be working on it every other day, if not every day until it's completed. Well… every day except for Sunday. Everyone needs a good break."

Kaiba stared at her for several long seconds as he digested that. He'd been thinking something along the same lines. Every day or every other day… He'd already been preparing himself to give a speech on why she should make time if she had something else going on.

"Also, I want to be in that top 5 margin. I want to go to Tokyo," Katherine said, and that's when Kaiba started to feel normal again. Controversial.

"We don't need to be in the top 5. I'm more concerned with getting a good grade and moving on." Kaiba quickly stated. Katherine fixed a firm stare.

"Well you can move on all you like, I'm going to do my absolute best." She said. They glared at each other for several long seconds.

Kaiba refused to respond to her statement. That meant giving in to her words. That was something he would never give the courteousy to. Mokuba was the only exception.

He was mostly surprised she was surviving his stare down. This girl was drawing out his curiosity… That wasn't easy to do, and it definitely wasn't a good thing. If he became interested, he wouldn't be able to stop looking for answers until he was satisfied. If that happened…

And then suddenly, she changed the subject.

"So, your schedule? When do you have time?"

It was all Kaiba could do not to smirk in triumph.

"I don't. That's the point," Kaiba replied. He turned on his business cell phone and looked at his own planner.

"If you're comfortable with it, then we'll work on this project every day at five o' clock pm. This way you can do your homework, and I can get some work done at Kaiba Corp." Kaiba eyed her suspiciously, half wondering if she had trouble with homework like most of the school did.

"That works. Where will we work on the project?" Katherine asked. Seto hesitated once more.

He'd thought about that question as well. He didn't want her in his home, and he didn't like the idea of going to a stranger's house either.

"We can meet at the Domino City Mall, in the food court. We'll meet there and figure out the rest then."

"And are we starting tonight? Or tomorrow."

"Tomorrow. I have to set up the plans, and I have a meeting tonight at five." Kaiba replied quickly, texting his secretary the information. Something he'd figured out after firing ten of them, was that if they had the written information, the results were much closer to what he actually wanted.

By the time he'd hit send, Seto was aware that Katherine was staring again.

"What?" He asked, looking up at her curiously. Was she some technology freak or something? Why was she so interested in his electronics?

"Nothing." Katherine replied.

"That nothing is going to turn into something if I have anything to say about it in this project." Kaiba said, smirking when her face scrunched up in annoyance.

"I can tell this is going to be so much fun," Katherine said sarcastically as she turned back to her drink.

"The feeling is mutual," Kaiba responded and put away his cell phone.

**~((~^*^~))~**

The rest of the day went fairly smooth. Kaiba, understanding how bad his day had been and how likely the following days would be difficult, had braced himself and was acting more cold than usual. Katherine was acting similarly. She rarely would look in Kaiba's direction, and seemed uncomfortable constantly. It annoyed Kaiba to an extent he could hardly believe. She was almost as aggravating as Jonouchi. But not that bad. Compared to Jonouchi, she was a mild cold in comparison to a raging flue.

Kaiba went to work the moment school was over. It was hard for him to concentrate, however, with the thought of Katherine Mallark plaguing his thoughts. He had to figure out how he was going to deal with her, get a good grade, and reveal nothing about his past. Getting rid of her the moment it was over would be the easy part… He was already deliberating with himself on how he was going to remove her from his life. There were plenty of options, of course. And he was familiar with every method. Especially considering how he got rid of several of Mokuba's kidnappers… He smirked.

Seto suffered through the meeting and then returned to his office to pull his things together and finish the project he'd been working on for two months. Kaiba was halfway through his work when he suddenly remembered something.

He hadn't asked for Katherine's phone number, in case he needed to change plans or call something off. Kaiba opened another window on his computer and went to the Domino High School website. He searched through the list of students and found the name 'Katherine Mallark'. Seto clicked on her name and frowned. He needed to log in as a 'teacher' to view personal information. God, Kaiba loved blackmail. He signed in as the principal.

Kaiba then pulled up her name again and looked over her information. Age seventeen, birth date October 14th… So she'd be turning eighteen soon. Kaiba scrolled down. He was more interested in phone numbers. He found a number and picked up his phone. He had to make sure it was accurate.

It rang for several seconds before someone picked up.

"Hello, this is the Mallarks," a woman's voice answered. Kaiba frowned. That wasn't Katherine's voice.

"Is Katherine Mallark there," Kaiba asked formally.

"Oh, yes. Who is this?"

"Seto Kaiba." He safely assumed he was probably talking to Katherine's mother.

"Oh, Katherine told me about you. I'll let her know you're on the line." Seto waited patiently.

"This is Katherine," a new voice finally said. It definitely sounded like her this time. "What do you need?"

"You're cell phone number. I didn't ask you earlier."

"Why do you need my number? How did you get _this_ number?"

"School website. And I need your cell phone number if we'll be working on this project together."

The line went silent. Seto twirled a pen in between his fingers, waiting for her to respond. Just when he was ready to repeat himself, she spoke.

"What's your number?" If he'd been holding a pencil, it would have snapped in half. That was her response?

"You first. Don't you have a cell phone? Everyone has a cell phone these days." When the line went silent again, Seto sighed.

"You don't have a cell phone."

"No, I don't." Was Katherine's final reply.

"Alright. I'll give you my number. I'll keep your home phone number for reference."

"Alright."

Kaiba relayed his number to her and waited for her to write it down.

"Got it. Anything else?"

"No. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay. Bye."

She hung up first. Kaiba stared at his cell phone in disbelief. Who was this chick? He'd never met anyone more to the point in a phone call other than himself. It was like she was just waiting for him to be done the entire time. It was different than when he first met her that morning, when she was acting all friendly and social… What happened between eight o' clock and lunch? That's when she seemed to change around him. Whatever it was, he'd figure it out tomorrow. And in the meantime, he'd have to figure out how he'd survive this project.

**~((~^*^~))~**

Katherine Mallark hung up the phone and stared out the kitchen window.

"What did that young man need?" Her mother, Tara Mallark, asked as she entered the kitchen. She'd been doing dishes until Kaiba called, and then left the room to give Katherine privacy. Like she was dating Kaiba or something. As if.

"He was wondering if I had a cell phone, so he could contact me about the project we're working on." Katherine replied, hanging up the phone on the wall.

"Well, if you want a cell phone all you have to do is ask," Mrs. Mallark replied. Katherine narrowed her eyes.

"I asked for two years for a cell phone, and now you're offering me one? What's the catch?" Katherine asked. Mrs. Mallark shrugged and turned on the tap water to finish the dishes.

"Well, if you need a cell phone for this project, and he'll need to keep in contact with you, why not? Besides, you're almost eighteen. I'm surprised you didn't go buy your own phone." Katherine sighed and leaned back against the wall.

"I didn't see the point anymore. It's not like I have any friends to call, or any friends who call me. It's over-rated and a waste of money if I'm not going to be using it."

"It sounds like you'd be using it now," Mrs. Mallark smiled softly. Katherine's shoulders stiffened.

"Alright. I'll get a cell phone." She said finally and walked out of the room.

"You've been acting defensive ever since you got home. Did something happen?"

"No," Katherine replied a little too quickly. Mrs. Mallark smiled when Katherine couldn't see her.

"By the way you're acting I would say you like this Seto Kaiba person." Katherine's face flushed.

"I don't like him. It's anything but that." Katherine quickly hurried upstairs to her room and closed the door behind her, pretending she didn't know her mom was still smiling downstairs.

What on earth gave her mother the idea that Katherine liked Seto Kaiba? She certainly didn't. She'd just met the guy and so far he was a jerk. If anything, the only concern on Katherine's mind, was how she was going to survive this project.

**~((~^*^~))~**

A/N: Please review.


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